Overall crime in England and Wales has dropped by a further 7% in the past year, contributing to a "historically unprecedented" fall over the past decade, according to official figures published today.

But this continuing fall in total crime is marred by an apparent rise in violence against the person, with the number of incidents recorded by the police topping the million mark for the first time.

Home Office statisticians describe the continuing fall in overall crime - down by 44% from its peak in 1995 - as "quite extraordinary and historically unprecedented, at least for the last century".

The crime figures published today also show a small rise in murders to 859 cases, a continuing rise in gun crime, mostly involving imitation weapons, and a 3% increase in police detections, reversing a downward trend since 1999. Home Office experts strenuously deny that the increase in violent crime is real, putting it down to changes in recording and reporting practices.

The 2004-05 results of the British Crime Survey, which is regarded as the most reliable indicator of crime trends, show that overall crime fell by 7% in the past year, with a 20% fall in domestic burglary, an 11% fall in car thefts and an 11% fall in violent crime.

Jon Simmons, assistant director of Home Office research, said yesterday that the fall in burglary was the biggest annual drop since 1915 and brought the overall number of burglaries back to levels last seen in 1981. He said the risk of being burgled was now once every 58 years compared with once every 27 years in 1995: "That means 10 years ago we might have expected to be burgled a couple of times in our lives, but now - according to the latest statistics - we are unlucky if we are burgled just once. The public will take some time before their understanding catches up with the current reality, but that is what our statistics show."

The police recorded crime figures show a slightly less rosy picture. They show overall crime falling by 6%, with strong falls also in burglaries, car thefts and street robberies.

But they record a strikingly different picture for violent crime, with a 17% rise in sexual offences to just under 9,000 reported incidents and an increase in incidents involving violence against the person by 8% to just over 1m. Most of the incidents recorded involve only minor injury and are regarded as "low-level thuggery" by the police.

Total crime recorded by the police fell 6% to 5.5m offences. Mr Simmons said he did not believe the overall rise in violent crime recorded by the police was real: "We have a wide range of evidence that shows that this rise is due to the impact of changes in reporting and recording. The BCS suggests we are becoming a less violent society, and less tolerant of violence by others."

He said the increase in the number of sexual offences was due to the impact of new legislation which includes indecent exposure in this category.

The figures also show for the first time that 85,000 people were dealt with by the police for cannabis possession last year, nearly half of whom were let off with a warning.

The Home Office minister Hazel Blears said the rise in violent crime figures showed that the pattern of recorded crime was changing, with people more likely to report low-level scuffles to the police. "The increase in the figures is also due to the increased police activity on Friday and Saturday nights in city centres and that leads to many more of these incidents being recorded," she said, adding that new measures would include cracking down on alcohol-related violence.

But the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, said the steady increase in violent crime was directly linked to drink. He called for a delay in the introduction of 24-hour licensing until binge drinking culture is brought under control. This view was echoed by the shadow home secretary, David Davis, who said it "beggared belief" that the government was about to allow 24-hour drinking after these figures.

However, the Association of Chief Police Officers said it believed the apparent rise in violent crime was due to changes in recording practices and targeted initiatives. "Every force in the country is targeting both the more serious and the low-level violence that affects all communities," said Acpo's president, Chris Fox.